Missouri native thriving at Notre Dame

The Thanksgiving holiday is quickly approaching, and on top of that, he will have to pack up for a road trip to Los Angeles this upcoming weekend.

Jeffers, a 1971 graduate of Neosho High School, is in his 34th year as a broadcaster for the Notre Dame football network on Westwood One. The play-by-play job is in addition to his job as the sports director of the NBC affiliate WNDU-TV station in South Bend, Ind., the home of the Fighting Irish.

It has been a long trek over the years from Neosho to Notre Dame, and Jeffers has enjoyed all of it.

“It has been amazing,” Jeffers said. “You never would’ve thought a guy from Neosho, Missouri, would get a chance to go to Notre Dame and stay here. It has been a dream come true. I owe a lot of thanks to the people in Neosho.”

Jeffers began his media career as a 16-year-old, working for KBTN radio station, doing a little bit of everything he said, from being a DJ to a janitor when needed.

When talking about Neosho, Jeffers brought up many people that had an impact on him that still resonates to this day.

Some of them include those with ties to the Neosho Daily News in Bill Ball and Dick Keezer.
Others include TV and radio personalities from the area including Ned Reynolds of KY3 in Springfield and the late Don Gross, the former play-by-play announcer for Missouri Southern.
Finally, there is the impact from those that were at Neosho High School in coaches?Al Potter and Calvin Lane. Jeffers also noted former Crowder men’s’ basketball coach Bob Sneller as a great influence on his life.

Jeffers played football for Lane, who the fieldhouse is named after, all four years in high school.

“Football is still very exciting to me,” Jeffers said. “I have been all over the country with Notre Dame and it all got started at Bob Anderson Stadium. I’ve learned more about football life from Calvin Lane than I have anyone else.

“There wasn’t a better play to grow up than Neosho. It was a little town, but it was exciting. You had Rocketdyne going full speed in the space race. You had a lot of people from different places, but it never lost its small town feel. I remember the sidewalk sales downtown. It was kind of like Mayberry on the “Andy Griffith Show,” but it wasn’t imaginary, Neosho was real.”

After Neosho High School, Jeffers went to Tulsa where he got his degree in film studies. After graduating, he came to Notre Dame in 1976 to start his master’s in communication arts.

Ironically, in his first year at Notre Dame, he was the assistant baseball coach.

Over the years he has served play-by-play broadcaster for Notre Dame football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

His current duties with Westwood One include doing the postgame and pre-game shows, and he also hosts a “Countdown to Kickoff” TV show. His TV broadcasting is among the best in Indiana.
He was named the top sportscaster in five of the last six years, and he has won seven Associate Press awards for excellence in broadcasting.

In May, he was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in Richmond, Ind., for his work with Notre Dame and his duties as a TV broadcasters covering high school football in his area. He said there are about 20 teams in his coverage area.

“It was a great honor,” Jeffers said. “Some are posthumously enshrined, and I was able to have my whole family there.”

And on top of all of his duties as a broadcaster, he is also an author. In 1981, he penned the book, “Rally! The 12 Greatest Comebacks in Notre Dame History.”

The Fighting Irish are 6-5 heading into Saturday’s game at USC, the No. 5 team in the country.
Notre Dame at one point was 5-2, but entering its rivalry game against the Trojans, the team is 6-5.

“They are a lot better than they were last year,” Jeffers said. “It has been very exciting.”

The season will likely continue into the postseason for the Fighting Irish this year, after a 3-9 season last fall. Both ESPN.com and The Sporting News predict the team will play in the Brut Sun Bowl, Dec. 31, in El Paso.

Jeffers and his wife, Leslie, are the parents of four children: Leighann, Scott, Reilly and Kelly, who is still in high school.

Neosho Daily News

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